House Republicans visit southern border as immigration negotiations continue in Washington

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Late today, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas over a new state law that would allow police to arrest migrants who enter the U.S. illegally. The law is set to take effect in March.

  Also today, dozens of House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson travel to the U.S.-Mexico border as negotiations continue over immigration policy between senators and the White House. In a news conference, Johnson attacked the Biden administration's approach to the border and called for change.

• Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

  If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America's national security.

• Amna Nawaz:

  To delve further into where border funding negotiations stand now is our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins.

  Lisa, good to see you.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Hi.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So you have been tracking the numbers, the activity at the border.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Where do things stand?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Let's talk about it. We are, as we have reported before, in a great migration surge around the world, and we saw that on our border in the Southwest in December.

  Let's look at the numbers that are recent from the Department of Homeland Security. First of all, in December, total migrant encounters on the Southwest border, 302,000. These are from sources that give me this information.

  Then, in December 2020, in December, we're going to point out not all of those encounters were through illegal entry. Some of those were through ports of entry, but those illegal entry numbers, that is at 250,000. What does that mean, Amna? Let's compare it to a year previously in 2022, also above 200,000, but not quite that high.

  These are record numbers that we saw in December, I will say. I also have been told that the numbers did go down over Christmas, over New Year's. And even today, as we saw the Republicans at the border, there were not as many people visible in the place they were standing at. Unclear if that will last.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And we know they change day to day, right?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right.

• Amna Nawaz:

  It's always fluctuating.

  Well, we know Republicans are demanding a border deal now. And the funding for Ukraine and Israel is frozen over these negotiations. You have been covering those Senate talks. Where do the negotiators stand?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  I was just spending a lot of time sitting outside of the office of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who was meeting with the two other key senators in this.

  Let's remind people who really is at the core of these negotiations. This is a group I call the Quad, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat of Connecticut, Sinema, the independent of Arizona, and Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma.

  I am told that they have been working every day, except for Christmas, over this break, that staff has been working at breakneck pace to try and figure out how to handle this border situation. They are talking about more limits on asylum, some kind of increased detention or expedited removal power.

  But the details are very difficult. Senator Kyrsten Sinema came out earlier today and told us that, actually, they are closing in on something and it's reasonable to think they could have something by next week. Of course, there's not a deal until there is one.

  I want to also say what Senate leader Chuck Schumer said today. He's also in town, another indication of how serious this is. This is what he told reporters:

• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

  I think, if the Senate gets something done in a bipartisan way, it will put enormous pressure on the House to get something done as well, and not just to let these hard right people get up and say they are going to — they, the 30 of them, to dictate how the whole country should work.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  So many of these deals fall apart, but there is tremendous pressure right now for many reasons, one, millions of lives at stake on the border, but also millions of lives, as you pointed out, in Ukraine, because that funding is not going to advance until potentially they work out this deal.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We heard Senator Schumer reference the House. What about House Republicans? Where are they willing to compromise?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  That's a good question. Right now, and what we heard from Speaker Johnson today on the border is that they are still demanding the bill that they passed, H.R.2.

  And I want to remind people of what's in that bill specifically. That is your conservative version of this. They — in that bill, they would deport or detain every new undocumented immigrant in this country. And that includes families and children. They would reinstate family detention, something that right now is unlawful in this country.

  Now, they would also have tougher screening standards for those applying for asylum, making it much more difficult. And they would end mass humanitarian parole. All but two Republicans in the House voted for that. Now, will they compromise? They haven't engaged yet.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Meanwhile, House Republicans seem to be moving on another front, and that is to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

  What do we know?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  That's right. Today, a House committee announced that they are going to have a hearing related to his possible impeachment next week. That's not the official inquiry yet.

  But what I'm hearing, my reporting is that they are ready to move toward impeachment this month or next of the homeland security secretary, even as he's dealing with this border crisis, they say because he hasn't handled it well. Homeland security says they're ready for this. They see this as political.

  Yes, it is very difficult for him to handle that and face impeachment. Also, Amna, all of this could tie into a potential government funding crisis in the middle of the month, Republicans saying they need border money before they will keep government operated. So it is going to get complicated, difficult and intense even more.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Lisa Desjardins, thank you, as always, for your great reporting.

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